Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Jun 9 08:46:00 2002

>>> Can anyone help with the ever so slight delay my sons have from the time they say swing until the swing starts. Is tension a typical cause of this <<<
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> Hi Richard
>
> Tension is always a problem, but when doing video swing reviews of many hitters, I find what appears to be a delay in their swing is caused more from poor linkage and initiation than timing. A bat of any substance offers a good amount of inertia to overcome in getting the bat-head moving. Batters that have poor linkage to shoulder rotation can rotate the shoulders too nearly full-open while the bat moves very little. Once shoulder rotation is depleted, the batter has only the arms to bring the bat around. Poor linkage to the front side occurs when the hands and lead-arm are too loose and far away from the body during rotation. This gives the appearance of a delay in the swing.
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> I think far to many coaches over-stress the lower body and mechanics for getting the hips to rotate. They pay too little attention at gaining an understanding of good transfer mechanics. I will guarantee you that the defining difference between the great and the average hitter will not be found in the lower body mechanics they use. I bet a video would show your sons’ hip rotation to be adequate. My suggestion would be to help them develop the mechanics that can better transfer that energy into bat-head acceleration.
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> Jack Mankin
>

There is a key point here about mechanics and motor learning and the concept of backward chaining which Jack gets at via the heavy bag and some of his other drills.

If the end of the motion isn't learned/perfected/controlled,the beginning of the motion can not be executed correctly or learned.This is part of what has been expressed here as top down control of a bottom up motion.Without good transfer mechanics,good body rotation is impossible,you can only sway either by lunging(back to front)or collapsing the backside(uppercut/never off backside.This swaying prevents getting the lower body energy efficiently transferred into batspeed.